Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Amy Grant


Girls night out...

She's so awesome...

Such an amazing voice...


So personable...

And best of all, she loves God!


So, when I get out of church on Sunday, I see that I have a voice mail from my friend, Marti. We've been friends for 25+ years. We've been through thick and thin together (and I'm not just referring to the shape of our bodies...). She's always been one of those spontaneous people who just decides to do things at the last minute. She's the one who taught me how much fun that can be. Back to the voicemail..."I got tickets for all of us to go to Amy Grant tomorrow...wanna go?" Are you kidding me?!


Then she told me to call our friend Jeni (who hasn't missed an Amy Grant concert in Portland since she was 9 years old...) and ask her if she CAN go (I knew the "wanting" part wasn't going to be an issue). So I called Jeni and in a very serious tone I said, "Hi Jen, it's April. I need to ask a really huge favor. Is there any way at all that you might be able to go to the Amy Grant concert with me tomorrow?" She started crying! She said, "Are you kidding? Don't joke about this!" She had been praying (and had several other people praying) that God would provide a way for her to go.

I enjoyed this concert more than any I've ever attended (not just Amy Grant's, but ANY). The talent on that stage was incredible. The band she's assembled had lots of familiar faces, which was great fun. They performed only songs that were recorded BEFORE 1988, which made for a great trip down memory lane. At the end of the concert she did 3 new and unrecorded songs (they're going into the studio in January to record a new album I think). They were awesome and I can't wait for them to be released.

So, there were 8 of us. All but two I have known for 15+ years, and we all love Amy. We went to Rose's before the concert and had dinner and dessert (of course we had dessert...it's what you DO when you go to Rose's). Then off to the concert. We danced, sang, laughed and bought T-shirts. It was an awesome night.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Bronchitis, Orange Juice and an Itchy Dog...Oh My!



This has not been the greatest of weeks at the Curtright homestead. I went to bed last Friday night with a little bit of a scratchy throat and literally woke up the next morning feeling like there was an elephant sitting on my chest. Full blown bronchitis, complete with green gubers and fever.


Anyone who knows me knows that my brain tends to "malfunction" when I'm sick. I will sometimes lose time, send weird emails or leave virtually undecodable voice mail messages. People used to think I was having a stroke or something, but as it's become fairly routine over the last couple of years, my friends and family have sort of "gotten used to it". While I don't think it's normal by any means, I've grown to accept it as well because I simply have bigger fish to fry when it comes to my mental health. But I think I finally realized tonight that I've been making matters much worse by my own "age old remedy" to healing myself of colds and bronchitis. I've always flushed and infused my system with vitamin C by downing at least a gallon of orange juice in little more than a day. It used to work wonders. I didn't used to be diabetic. Duh. Orange Juice + Diabetes= Loopy April. I'm fairly certain I've been sending myself into diabetic shock every time I get a cold. I never even thought about it until I was talking to a friend of mine tonight and we were trying to figure out why I lose my mind when I'm sick. I'm seeing a Dr tomorrow, so I'll discuss it with her, but I'm pretty sure I need to just start buying vitamin C tablets and lay off the OJ.


Then there's poor little Finn. He's been really itchy for a while now. I've been trying all the home remedies...oatmeal soap, flaxseed oil, cottage cheeese. None of it is working. Poor little guy tries to scratch his back on everything possible. I feel so bad for him.


So tomorrow (well, really it's later today since it's almost 2 a.m. now) it's off to the Dr for me, the vet for Finn and then counseling to try to get my head screwed on right. It should be such a fun day...NOT. But hopefully we'll get some answers to our issues...would love your prayers!

P.S. I have officially lost it... My knuckles have been really dry and cracking, so after writing this post and before turning in for the night, I thought, "maybe I'll try putting some chapstick on them while I'm sleeping." Makes sense, right? As I began slathering on the chapstick I looked down only to realize I'd grabbed a glue stick and now had glue all over my knuckles. And I wasn't even under the influence of orange juice!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Anxiety and Thankfulness



“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:6,7


One of the speakers at the Women of Faith pre-conference was Jan Silvious. She is often referred to as a female Dr. Phil, except that all of her counsel and teaching comes from her knowledge of God and His Word. Her depth of knowledge and wisdom is evident in her messages.

One of the things she spoke about at WOF really struck me. She started by reading Philippians 4:6,7 (which incidentally I have tattooed on my shoulder…see the above photo...by the way, it's very hard to take a picture of your own tattoo when it's on the back of your shoulder. I have also claimed this passage as some of my life verses). Have you ever wondered why God threw in the “with thanksgiving” part? Well, Jan has a very interesting answer to that question.

Psychologists have been using fear therapy for a while now. Fear therapy is where they take someone who is really afraid of something and they expose them to an intense experience of that fear. For example, if someone is deathly afraid of snakes, they will basically put a snake in the person’s face to expose them to their fear. There are many methods and variations of how they implement fear therapy. However, in recent years they have discovered that once they’ve exposed a patient to their fear, in this case the snake, and then remove the fear and tell the patient to think of things they are thankful for, the fear immediately recedes and the patient returns to a peaceful state of mind. The reason for this is that the brain produces certain chemicals for both the emotions of fear and of thankfulness. Those two chemicals cannot reside in the brain together. So, if someone is afraid, a chemical is released into the brain. Then when they think of things they are thankful for, a different chemical is released and it basically cancels out the fear chemical because the two cannot coexist. It’s physically impossible to be fearful and thankful at the same time!

Isn’t that amazing?! Ok, but here’s an even cooler part…God already told us that long before “science” ever discovered or proved it. Look at Philippians 4:6,7 again:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

For someone like me who has been medically diagnosed with anxiety issues, this is a major thing to grasp. I LOVE this passage of Scripture. In the past when I’ve thought about Philippians 4:6,7, I’ve always just prayed that God would remove my anxiety. But now I know that He’s actually provided a WAY to remove my anxiety…be thankful! Isn’t our God the coolest?!

So THANK YOU for reading my blog...get it? I'm being thankful...

Monday, October 13, 2008

Guess Who Winked At Me This Morning...




As you may have gathered by now, I went to Women of Faith last weekend (yeah, yeah, I get a little excited and exuberant about these things…). This is one of the coolest things I not only learned about, but also experienced in the first session.

So, my friend Jan and I were in our seats at the Rose Quarter, waiting for the conference to begin on Friday night. I had gone to the “preconference” during the day on Friday and was already pretty fired up and excited for the rest of the weekend. Jan? Well, let’s just say she’d never been to Women of Faith, was totally exhausted and had admitted to me that if she hadn’t already paid for her ticket, she wouldn’t have been going. That was a sure fire sign to me that Satan was on the prowl and that she was in for an AMAZING weekend.

Now, if you’ve never been to Women of Faith, you need to picture something here…we are in a HUGE stadium filled with literally 11,000 women. Just before the music started Jan said to me, “Wow, you’d think in a place with this many people you’d see someone you know.” I agreed but said I hadn’t seen anyone that I knew at all during the day.

Then the music began. People were still getting to their seats…it’s a stadium filled with women after all. Getting that many women to stop chatting is no small feat. Everyone was standing, preparing to sing worship songs. I was just glancing around in amazement at the sight of that many Christian women all in one room when I noticed a woman two rows ahead and directly in front of me. She was turned around looking and talking to someone behind me. As my eyes and brain began to focus on her, I realized that it was a very dear friend of mine, Debbie (see above photo), that I had lost contact with and who I’d been seriously looking for over at least the last three years! You have to picture the look on my face now…I remember the feeling that my eyes were open as wide as they would go and my mouth was literally wide open and I felt sort of paralyzed. I literally could not move or say anything. At first Debbie glanced at me and in that instant I could tell she was thinking, “why is that woman staring at me?” but then the same recognition kicked in for her as it had for me…and she had the exact same look on her face. Neither of us could speak. Then without saying a word, she slowly pointed and I realized she was pointing behind me so I turned around. Seated directly behind me was her sister, Danelle, another dear friend I’d lost contact with! When we finally had the opportunity to speak to one another, we realized that about 19 years have gone by since we “lost” each other.

One of the speakers that night mentioned “God Winks”. She said, “You know those times when you get a totally unexpected surprise that cannot and should not be chalked up to ‘coincidence’? That is God winking at you and letting you know how special you are to Him.” At that point, I reached back and squeezed Danelle’s hand. Out of a room filled with 11,000 women, my two friends, who I’ve been searching for, were literally within 3 feet of me now. THAT was a God Wink.

Oh, and as for Jan, who really didn’t want to be there Friday night? Remember she was tired and dragging before we left for the conference? Well, afterward…at 10:00 p.m. she said, “You want to go get something to eat and chat before we go home?” I spent the night at her house on Friday and guess who was up looong before me, bebopping around and anxious to get going for Saturday’s sessions… As we parted ways on Saturday night, Jan told me that for someone who really didn’t want to go to WOF, she was more glad she went than I could know. I also got a phone call from her today. When I answered the phone I heard, “Guess Who winked at me this morning…”

Follow up to my last entry


Time to get real...I've been very convicted about my last blog ("One of the Cool People..."). I thought about just deleting it, but if nothing else, it was honest about where I was at emotionally. However, I began to realize that I felt a little bit of a cringe every time I opened my blog. Cringing is not a good thing when my ultimate goal is to glorify God with my writing...

So, while I think that the points I made about keeping myself in check are valid, I really want to retract the judgments I placed on the poor folks I was referring to in my post. They are ordinary people with ordinary lives and are not purposefully or otherwise hurting anyone...including me. It was my own selfishness that was doing the damage.

And on another note, I went to Women of Faith this past weekend. It was amazing as always (well this is only my second time, but I've always heard positive things about it...), but I am still digesting the whopping portion of teaching I received. I plan to blog about it soon, I'm still just sorting it all out. I hope that once I get around to it, that you will be as blessed by what I heard (as I regurgitate it to you) as I was.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

One of the Cool People? Guess Not




"Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them.


Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good."


Romans 12:9 (New Living Translation)




Isn't it funny how we like to think that once we "grow up" all the struggles of childhood will somehow cease to exist? But the truth of the matter is it doesn't. Case in point: wanting just to fit in, and the cold hard truth of cliques.

I've realized in the last few weeks that I really want to fit in. It's not so much just wanting to be one of the "cool people", but actually a desire to connect with people that I think probably have a lot in common with me. I see a group of people that seem to really enjoy one another, that seem to love the same things I love and that have the same sense of humor I do, and I think, "wow, I'd really like to get to know those people and become a part of what they have." Because they are fellow believers, I figure since we share a common bond, and if I am making an effort, they will at least respond to me and make an effort to get to know me as well. Right? Not so much. And truth be known, it stings.

I'm sure people don't even realize what they're doing (at least I really hope it's not a conscious thing...). I'm sure they don't realize that while they are enjoying such a close-knit bond they are alienating other brothers and sisters in Christ. From what I can tell, most of the people I'm observing even desire to minister to others, and yet there's something elitist that comes across as "don't cross this line" when someone makes an effort to get to know them on a deeper level.

So, what does this mean for someone like me who is on the outside looking in (okay, maybe even my face is pressed up against the window)? I'm realizing that it means a few things...

1.) I need to make sure that my attitude toward others is Christ-like
2.) I need to check myself and my responses to people.
3.) I need to stop worrying about what other people think of me.
4.) I need to make sure that I don't think of myself as better than others in any way!
5.) I need to pray for the people in whom I'm noticing this behavior.

So, while it appears that I may not be one of the cool people, and that I'm probably not going to be able to "break into" that inner circle of people, God still has me where I'm at for a reason. I'm growing and learning and finally beginning to get connected...and that's what matters...cool person or not.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Here I Am In All My Glory...

Ok, maybe not exactly glory, but I decided it would be fun to start a blog. I haven't done much blogging (just a few entries on myspace...but now I'm on facebook, which I like a lot better), but I enjoy reading other people's blogs.

Anyway, normally I can think of lots of things to talk about, but here I sit with a blank page in front of me and I can't think of a single thing I want to say. Hmmm, maybe this blogging thing isn't going to be as easy as I imagined... So, this blog will be filled with random thoughts.

I'm looking forward to going to the Women of Faith conference this weekend. The first and only time I went was in 2005 and it had a major impact on my life. I have a feeling this time will be just as powerful. I'm especially looking forward to hearing Patsy Clairmont speak. She is hysterical and brings home her message with quite the punch. I'm going with one of my oldest friends, Jan (perhaps I should say longest lasting so as not to cast apsersions on her age...). I'm looking forward to the time I'll be spending with her almost as much as the conference itself. I'm sure I will have more to blog about after WOF.

Yesterday in church the speaker (it wasn't our pastor teaching this week) talked about our "higher purpose" and that really, most everything in life is not about us, but about someone else. As Christians, our very existence is not really about ourselves, but about reaching the lost and living a life that brings light into this dark world that we live in...and boy is our world ever dark. I think it's getting darker by the minute. In some ways, it's easy to "accept" that our higher purpose is to bring the Gospel to non-believers, but to really put the "it's not about me" concept into practice in our every day lives seems a little tougher to me. Can you imagine how different life would be if everyone just put other people before themselves always? Ugh. This is not an easy thing to grasp...I tend to want to defend myself and my "rights", sometimes at the expense of someone else's feelings. It's just not ok. So, God is working on me in this regard.

Ok, pretty boring for a first blog. I'll try to make them more interesting in the future...